RADIO
The deeper a fantasy basketball league, the harder it is to hit a winner with your last few picks. It is also harder to find decent help from the waiver wire if your late-round picks don't do you justice. If you picked up a few stinkers, don't lose hope just yet. I will try to help you pick up a winner.
Here are my deeper league fantasy basketball waiver wire pickups for Week 2 and your fantasy basketball teams. These NBA players should be available in most leagues and they might just help you out, whether it's a few weeks rental or a long-term fix to a problem your team is having.
If a guy on your team is frustrating you with his weak performances, give some of them a go. They might just be worth it.
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Fantasy Basketball Waiver Wire Targets for Week 2
Lonnie Walker IV (SG/SF, SAS) - 13% rostered
There is a reasonable amount of hype among Spurs fans regarding Josh Primo aka Young Cousin aka Baby Hooper. The truth is, though, that the 18-year-old man out of Toronto seems to be a long-term project for Pop instead of a present-day contributor to the team, even in a rebuild: to wit, 5 minutes of playing time and not even one full round of the clock last Saturday in his second game as a pro. With that little intro out of the way, the guard positions of the Spurs are a thing of three--Dejounte Murray clearly at the point, and Lonnie Walker/Derrick White more in the shooting-guard slot (with a sprinkle of Bryn Forbes here and there, but nothing very threatening).
Lonnie is the one coming off the pine so far this year, though he's already racked up 71 minutes in three games (24 MPG) and an average 13-4-2-1 line in those three outings. He's shot 15+ shots twice, and finished those two games with 17 points scored each (combined 4-for-4 from the free-throw line in those, also). Lonnie had a semi-breakout season last year with an 11-2-1 line in 25+ MPG. That's obviously a super-low baseline, but his opportunities and touches should grow this season in a team that let their veteran staples go and opened the door to the crop of youngsters drafted during the past few years.
Doug McDermott (SF/PF, SAS) - 9% rostered
Dougie McBuckets signed with San Antonio this past summer to man the forward position for the Spurs at least until Zach Collins is back in the lineup--which, given his track record and past with injuries, we'll see how it goes for the former Blazer--and so far that's what he's done. Three games into the year, McDermott played just 23 games in G1 but he's logged 31 and 33 minutes in back-to-back outings this Friday-Saturday.
Doug Mac had an explosive game on Saturday when he scored a season-high 25 pops including 7 triples on a pinpoint-accurate shooting night in which the forward dropped hit paydirt in 69.2% of his 13 field goal attempts from the floor. In his first season as a part-time starter last year, playing 24+ MPG, McDermott averaged a 13-3-1 per-game line with 53/39/81 shooting splits. Not the highest-volume-man among shooters (forget about free-throws), but one to give you high percentages more often than not. The Spurs stink and will give ample opportunities to the young core (which McDermott is pretty much not a part of) but as a squad-leading veteran he should keep up the minutes and numbers to a certain extent.
Jordan Nwora (SF, MIL) - 8% rostered
With the Bucks and the Nets opening the 2021-22 season it wasn't surprising to see this happening. Jordan Nwora played 27 minutes for Milwaukee as the Bucks destroyed Brooklyn on national television and the 15-6-1-1-1 performance from the second-year man obviously made the rounds. Nwora has come down to earth a bit in the other two games he's played since, but odds are he keeps seeing a good amount of minutes at least until the Bucks rotation and second-unit players get healthy.
Nwora's second and third game of the year finished with Jordan putting up 11-5-2 (25 FG% on 12 FGA) and 7-6-1-0-2 (42.9 FG% on 7 FGA) lines. That's way more on par with what we can expect from the sophomore. Rodney Hood has yet to debut for Milly but is inching closer, and the likes of Bobby Portis, Brook Lopez, and Semi Ojeleye are also getting back soon. Nwora falls on the big-men side of the spectrum so odds are he gets limited in his role to some extent. Take advantage of his current role and production while it lasts.
Raul Neto (PG, WAS) - 3% rostered
The Wiz added tons of depth to the squad this past offseason thanks to the Russell Westbrook trade. One of the players landing in DC was Aaron Holiday. The point guard started last Friday with Bradley Beal out of commission as he got a little bit banged up and missed that game. But that's all Holiday has in his favor when it comes to an early-season comparison between his production on that of Raul Neto.
In other words, Neto has been the much better player for the Wiz so far, averaging a 13-3-2-1 line compared to Holiday's 3-2-1 (not to mention putting up a putrid 16-percent shooting from the floor on a total 10 FGA in the first two games of the year. Neto has shot 50%+ from the floor on both of the Wiz matches through Saturday (8 and 11 FGA) and his usage rate playing off the pine is sitting at 20%+ in the two of them too. Neto was one of my favorite WW pickups last season, and everything points toward the same happening again this year. Even for a backup, Neto should stay active and get reasonable numbers good enough to have him rostered by those in deeper leagues.
George Hill (PG, MIL) - 1% rostered
This is a little bit of a flier considering Hill got his early-season fantasy points due to his start in G2 with Jrue Holiday banged up and off the lineup. Even then, though, Hill has shown enough to put him in our WW radars. It's not that Milly has many more PGs available (Donte DiVincenzo remains out) so Hill is currently the no. 1 backup to Holiday in the event he has to miss more time or gets injured once more before DDV is back.
Hill played to his floor in the season's tip-off game as he went on to play 24 minutes off the pine for a stupid 1-5-3-0-1 outing that included a ridiculous nil-for-3 shooting performance and just a freebie scored on the night. He also turned the ball over once, and committed 5 PFs against the Nets. Night to forget, indeed. But that looks more an outlier than anything else, as the next two games were much better for Hill, who reached lines of 8-2-2-1 (42.9 FG%, 2 treys) and 15-2-1-1 (83.3 FG%, 3 treys). Hill will get you triples and low-volume contributions all across the stat line with no real competition at the PG2 role for the next few days/weeks.
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